Hiring managers and ERGs should collaborate by establishing clear communication, defining inclusion goals, and co-creating bias-aware interview questions. Leveraging ERG insights, providing bias training, piloting questions, and incorporating feedback ensures fair, inclusive hiring aligned with organizational values.
How Can Hiring Managers and ERGs Collaborate Effectively to Design Inclusive Interview Questions?
AdminHiring managers and ERGs should collaborate by establishing clear communication, defining inclusion goals, and co-creating bias-aware interview questions. Leveraging ERG insights, providing bias training, piloting questions, and incorporating feedback ensures fair, inclusive hiring aligned with organizational values.
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How to Involve ERGs in the Interview Process
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Establish Clear Communication Channels
Hiring managers and ERGs should set up regular meetings or collaborative platforms to discuss hiring needs and inclusion goals. Open communication ensures both parties share perspectives and co-create interview questions that reflect diverse experiences and reduce bias.
Define Inclusion Objectives Together
Before drafting questions, collaboratively define what inclusion means for the role and organization. Aligning on core values ensures interview questions assess candidates’ abilities to contribute to a diverse and inclusive workplace, avoiding generic or irrelevant prompts.
Leverage ERG Insights on Underrepresented Talent
ERGs bring firsthand understanding of challenges faced by underrepresented groups. Hiring managers can tap into this knowledge to design questions that uncover candidates’ cultural competence, resilience, and ability to thrive in diverse environments.
Provide Bias Awareness Training
Both hiring managers and ERG members should undergo training on unconscious bias and inclusive interviewing techniques. This shared foundation helps create fair questions and evaluate candidates more objectively, fostering trust in the collaboration process.
Co-Create Behavioral and Situational Questions
Collaboratively developing behavioral questions focuses on real past experiences, while situational questions assess problem-solving in diversity-related scenarios. This partnership ensures questions are relevant and probe the candidate’s ability to support inclusion effectively.
Pilot and Revise Interview Questions Together
Test interview questions in mock interviews with ERG members acting as candidates or observers. Gather feedback on question clarity, inclusivity, and effectiveness, then refine the questions collaboratively to better meet inclusion and hiring goals.
Incorporate ERG Feedback in Candidate Evaluation Criteria
Beyond question creation, ERGs can help define the criteria for evaluating candidates’ responses, emphasizing inclusivity and cultural fit. This alignment ensures hiring managers assess candidates through an equity lens consistently.
Use ERG Stories to Contextualize Questions
Hiring managers can ask ERGs to share real-life workplace stories that exemplify inclusive or exclusive behaviors. Using these narratives to frame interview questions helps candidates understand organizational values and the importance of diversity.
Document and Share Best Practices
Regularly document successful interview questions and collaboration methods used by hiring managers and ERGs. Sharing these best practices across teams promotes consistent, inclusive hiring and continuous improvement in the process.
Recognize and Celebrate Collaborative Successes
Acknowledging the impact of hiring manager and ERG teamwork in creating inclusive interviews reinforces commitment. Celebrate hires made through this process and showcase how collaboration drives diversity and inclusion in the organization.
What else to take into account
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